Tune-away protocols for wireless systems

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided for processing wireless signal components for a mobile wireless access broadband service. This can include processes for defining a protocol that controls whether to invoke a tune away component to determine an alternative wireless communications path. This can include defining one or more tune away parameters for the tune away component. The process can then automatically select the alternative wireless communications path based in part on the tune away procedure and at least one of the tune away parameters.

REFERENCE TO CO-PENDING APPLICATIONS FOR PATENT

The present Application for Patent is related to the followingco-pending U.S. Patent Applications:

Attorney Docket No. 060042, entitled, “RESOURCE ALLOCATION DURINGTUNE-AWAY”, filed concurrently herewith, assigned to the assigneehereof, and expressly incorporated by reference herein; Attorney DocketNo. 060043, entitled, “INTER-FREQUENCY HANDOFF”, filed concurrentlyherewith, assigned to the assignee hereof, and expressly incorporated byreference herein; Attorney Docket No. 060044, entitled, “TUNE-AWAY ANDCROSS PAGING SYSTEMS AND METHODS”, filed concurrently herewith, assignedto the assignee hereof, and expressly incorporated by reference herein;and Attorney Docket No. 060081, entitled, “MOBILE WIRELESS ACCESSSYSTEM,” filed concurrently herewith, assigned to the assignee hereof,and expressly incorporated by reference herein.

BACKGROUND

I. Field

The subject technology relates generally to communications systems andmethods, and more particularly to systems and methods that provideprotocols that enable communications transceivers to be tuned to analternative channel in order to determine alternative frequencies ortechnologies that facilitate further communications in a mobile wirelesscommunications setting.

II. Background

Wireless companies are constantly improving next-generation networksthat combine voice and data on cellular networks, for example.Collectively, these companies have spent billions on licenses andequipment to provide a broad array of new data-centric services forcustomers. But emerging technologies could offer a leap past so-calledthird-generation systems just as they are beginning to emerge. One suchtechnology is based on the IEEE 802.20 standard, a member of the 802family that includes the better-known 802.11b, or Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi LAN(local area network) standard has proliferated in recent years byoffering broadband wireless connections for laptops and other mobiledevices.

A new standard could change the direction of wireless networking,though. Whereas Wi-Fi and the newer 802.16 metro-area wireless broadbandsystem are limited by the range of coverage areas—from a few hundredfeet to 30 miles or so, respectively whereas 802.20 sits on existingcellular towers. It essentially promises the same coverage area as amobile phone system with the speed of a Wi-Fi connection. This mayaccount for why 802.20, or mobile broadband wireless access (MBWA), hasgenerated interest regarding potential new applications.

One differentiating factor for these new applications is that theyprovide full mobility and nationwide coverage through cell-to-cellhandoff with access to broadband speeds for any application. Thus,business travelers, for example, can access corporate networks while onthe move and send information in real-time back to the office—just as ifthey were connected to the local area network at their respectiveoffice. In some cases, users get the same broadband Internet experiencethey have with a DSL or cable modem connection, but in a cellular mobileenvironment.

One aspect for employing mobile broadband wireless access technologiesis the concept of an active set and related protocol for managingcommunications between an access terminal such as a cell phone and anaccess network such as a base station. A default Active Set ManagementProtocol provides the procedures and messages used by the accessterminal and the access point to keep track of the access terminal'sapproximate location and to maintain the radio link as the accessterminal moves between coverage areas of different sectors. In general,the Active Set is defined as a set of Pilots or Sectors with allocatedMACID for an access terminal. The Active Set members can be synchronousor asynchronous with respect to each other. The access terminal cangenerally switch its serving Sector at any time among these Active Setmember Sectors.

A Synchronous Subset of an Active Set consists of sectors that aresynchronous with each other. Moreover, the subset is a maximal subset,i.e., generally all sectors that are synchronous with the sectors inthis subset are contained in this subset. The different SynchronousSubsets ASSYNCH can be constructed using a last instance of an ActiveSet Assignment message, for example. Transmission from the accessterminal to two different Synchronous Subsets of the active set isconsidered independent of each other. For example, the access terminalreports CQI to a Synchronous Subset of sectors independent of any otherSynchronous Subset. One area that is of important concern is howcommunications are handed off between frequencies on a communicationschannel and/or between communications technologies that may be differentbetween component of a given mobile broadband wireless access system.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary of various embodiments inorder to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of theembodiments. This summary is not an extensive overview. It is notintended to identify key/critical elements or to delineate the scope ofthe embodiments disclosed herein. Its sole purpose is to present someconcepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detaileddescription that is presented later.

Systems and methods are provided that facilitate wireless communicationsbetween wireless devices, between stations for broadcasting or receivingwireless signals, and/or combinations thereof. In one embodiment,various protocols are provided that can be employed by components suchas access terminals and access nodes to determine an optimum channel forcommunications. The protocol enables signaling between access componentsthat initiates automated procedures to determine if an alternativefrequency and/or technology is available for use in wirelesscommunications. The protocol may include employment of a tune-awayattribute and a tune-away control message to control such aspects astune-away duration times, tune-away periods, timing frame parameters,and whether or not to enable or disable a tune-away sequence. Byemploying such protocol, optimal communications channels can be selectedas wireless devices are mobilized from one point to another. In oneembodiment, a method is provided that includes a sector time offset toenable synchronization of tune away between nodes as an access terminalmoves between different asynchronous sectors.

In another embodiment, inter-frequency and inter-radio access technologytune-away mechanisms are provided that facilitate communications in amobile broadband wireless access system. These mechanisms are providedin a connected mode where there are on-going communications of a givenchannel. In general, in order to support such mobile communicationsapplications without having to employ dual receivers for sampling andlocating alternative communications paths, the tune away mechanismallows an access terminal to dynamically cooperate with an accessnetwork to determine potential communications paths to continue aparticular session.

As conditions change, the tune away mechanism allows the currentcommunications channel to be tuned to a subsequent frequency in order todetermine properties of an alternative communications path such assignal strength of the path. The tune away condition provides atemporary sampling of alternative paths while mitigating disruptions tocurrent communications. Such sampling allows determining which potentialfrequencies may be employed for future communications as conditionschange such as when a mobile device moves from one point to another. Inanother embodiment, tune away may be employed to facilitatecommunications between differing communications technologies orprotocols employed in wireless applications. For example, an existingwireless protocol may be employed for a current session but asconditions change such as movement away from one access point towardanother, it may be desirable to change the actual technology orcommunications protocol employed to facilitate future communications. Inthis case, tune away is provided to support inter radio accesstechnology (inter-RAT) applications.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certainillustrative embodiments are described herein in connection with thefollowing description and the annexed drawings. These aspects areindicative of various ways in which the embodiments may be practiced,all of which are intended to be covered.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a mobile broadbandwireless access system.

FIG. 2 is an example timing diagram for a tune-away component.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating schedule timing considerations.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating inter-frequency protocolconsiderations.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrates a connected state protocol for tune-awaydeterminations.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating connected mode considerations forinter-radio access technology handoff and tune-away.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating example inter-radio access protocolparameters.

FIG. 8 illustrates a hybrid mode protocol for paging systems.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example system for employing signal processingcomponents.

FIGS. 10 and 11 illustrate exemplary wireless communications systemsthat can be employed with the signal processing components.

FIG. 12 is an illustration of an access point system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are provided for processing wireless signalcomponents for a mobile wireless access broadband service. This caninclude processes for defining a protocol that controls whether toinvoke a tune away component to determine an alternative wirelesscommunications path. This can include defining a protocol that specifiesone or more tune away parameters for the tune away component. Theprocess can then automatically select the alternative wirelesscommunications path based in part on the tune away procedure and atleast one of the tune away parameters. By tuning away in this manner todetermine alternative communications channels, both inter-frequencyhandoff applications and inter radio access technology handoffs can beachieved to support a broad range of wireless applications.

As used in this application, the terms “component,” “mechanism,”“system,” and the like are intended to refer to a computer-relatedentity, either hardware, a combination of hardware and software,software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, butis not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor,an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or acomputer. By way of illustration, both an application running on acommunications device and the device can be a component. One or morecomponents may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and acomponent may be localized on one computer and/or distributed betweentwo or more computers. Also, these components can execute from variouscomputer readable media having various data structures stored thereon.The components may communicate over local and/or remote processes suchas in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets (e.g.,data from one component interacting with another component in a localsystem, distributed system, and/or across a wired or wireless networksuch as the Internet).

FIG. 1 illustrates a mobile broadband wireless access system 100. Thesystem 100 includes one or more access terminals 110 that communicatebetween terminals 110 an in accordance with an access network 120, wherean access network are the connections and associated electroniccomponents that link a core network to points of presence (POP) and onto Points of Interconnect (POI) switch locations. Such terminals 110 caninclude substantially any type of communicating device such as a cellphone, computer, personal assistant, hand held or laptop devices, and soforth. In general, the access terminals 110 are in a mobile situationwhere communicating according to one particular access network 120 maynot always be possible. Thus, one or more tune-away mechanisms 130 canbe provided to facilitate communications between such terminals 110.

In one embodiment, various protocols are provided for the tune-awaycomponent or mechanism 130 that can be employed by components such asthe access terminals 110 and the access network 120 to determine anoptimum channel for communications. The protocol 130 enables signalingbetween the access components that initiates automated procedures todetermine if an alternative frequency and/or technology is available foruse in wireless communications. The protocol 130 can include employmentof a tune-away attribute and a tune-away control message to control suchaspects as tune-away duration times, tune-away periods, timing frameparameters, and whether or not to enable or disable a tune-awaysequence. By employing such protocol 130, optimal communicationschannels can be automatically selected as wireless devices are mobilizedfrom one point to another.

The tune-away mechanisms and protocols 130 basically allow the terminals110 and network 120 to determine alternative communications paths bytemporarily tuning away from an existing path and sampling a subsequentpath for suitable employment in on-going communications. For example, asignal strength may be measured on an alternative frequency while tuningaway from a current frequency employed for communications. If a suitablesignal threshold is detected, the alternative frequency can beautomatically selected for future communications. As illustrated,tune-away mechanisms can be provided to support inter-frequencytune-away applications at 140 and/or support inter radio accesstechnology (inter-rat) applications at 150.

To facilitate inter-frequency handoff between communications channels at140, an Active Set is extended to include members from one or morefrequencies. This implies that the Active Set consists of Sectors fromone or more frequencies. The Sector from different frequencies may besynchronous or asynchronous with respect to each other. To facilitateadding another frequency sector into the Active Set, the mobilebroadband wireless access system 100 provides the ability for the accessnetwork 120 to specify other frequency neighbors in a sector parametersmessage specified in an overhead messages protocol. This includes theability for the active terminal 110 to report other frequency SectorPilot strength in a Pilot Report message specified in an Active SetManagement Protocol. Another aspect includes the ability for accessnetwork 120 to specify other frequency members in an Active SetAssignment message specified in the Active Set Management Protocol.

Generally, in order to report other frequency Sector Pilot strength, theactive terminal 110 takes measurements at various times and intervals.In an Idle mode where no on-going communications are detected, it isstraight-forward since the receiver is available for other frequencymeasurements. In order to report Pilot strength in Connected Mode,either dual receivers or temporary tune-away mechanism 130 is provided.Since one can not always assume availability of dual receivers, thetune-away mechanism 130 is provided to facilitate determination ofalternative communications paths. Furthermore, similar tune-awaymechanisms 130 are also provided for inter-RAT handoff 150 and listeningfor Pages for another technology that may be asynchronous to the mobilebroadband wireless access (MBWA) system 100.

As noted above, the MBWA system 100 supports Idle and Connected ModeInter-RAT Handoff. The tune-away mechanisms 130 are provided tofacilitate handoff from MBWA system to other radio access technologiesas well. The system design assumes that the handoff policy for Inter-RATHandoff reside in the access terminal 110 but other architectures arepossible. In other words, the trigger for measurement of othertechnology and the handoff decision algorithm generally reside in theaccess terminal 110.

For inter-rat 150 technologies, the same tune-away mechanisms can beemployed as provided for the Inter-frequency handoff to measure otherradio access technology Pilot signals. In addition, a Sector Parametersmessage in an Overhead Messages Protocol provides ability to send othertechnology Neighbor List. These two mechanisms provide the accessterminal with the ability to find other radio access technologies in theneighborhood, and measure the Pilots for other technologies.

In another embodiment, the MBWA system 100 supports reception of Pagemessages for other radio access technologies. There are typically twodistinct mechanisms provided although other configurations are possible.In one case, tune-away mechanism 130 receives pages for other systems.In another case, an inter RAT Protocol in a Session layer providessending an Inter RAT Blob (binary large object) message from the accessterminal 110 or the access network 120. The first case is useful whenthe MBWA system 100 has no integration in a core network with the otherradio access technologies. Hence, one way to get a Page message from theother technology is by listening to its Paging Channel. The tune awaymechanism 130 supports tuning away for listening to paging channels atvery specific times in other radio access technologies that are bothsynchronous and asynchronous to the MBWA system 100.

In general, the tune-away mechanism 130 can be employed to samplefrequencies by having timing knowledge of both the access terminals 110and the access network 120. This can include being able to sampletechnologies in a manner that enables mitigating missing pages from apurely random sample since the system can determine sampling times thataccount for synchronous and asynchronous timing differences betweenterminals 110 and network 120. For example, this can include providingsampling schedules that are outside of a frequency frame or allowsampling within a sector.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example timing diagram 200 for a tune-awaycomponent. A tune away mechanism or component generally consists of atune away schedule and tune away control. A Tune Away Schedule Nattribute parameter provides a component to communicate tune awayschedule(s) between access terminals and access points or nodes. Anexample tune-away timing schedule is depicted in the diagram 200. Inthis schedule 200, it is assumed that the first tune away occurredduring a Super frame defined by a Super frame Number 210 provided in aTune Away Schedule N parameter. Furthermore, more refined time of afirst tune away is a Start Super frame Offset parameter 220 e.g.,microseconds from the beginning of the Super frame identified at 210. ATune Away Duration 230 is how long in microseconds the access terminaltunes away. A Tune Away Periodicity parameter 240 determines the timebetween the start of successive tune away in units of microsecond. Theaccess terminal can negotiate one or more tune away schedules ifdesired. More than one schedule may be needed for example to monitorpages of one system and also tuning away for inter-frequency handoffs.

The tune-away control mechanism described above provides at least twofunctions including: Enable/Disable tune-away, and providing timecorrection to the tune away schedule. The access terminal can Enable orDisable tune away schedules at substantially any time. Furthermore, theaccess terminal can Enable or Disable more than one schedule at the sametime. The time corrections are typically provided for time criticaltune-away to receive pages for a system that is asynchronous to MBWAsystem. In this example, whenever a new sector is added to an activeset, the access terminal provides a correction factor, Sector Offset inunits of microseconds to correct time so that the access terminal tunesaway at the right time in the other system to receive a page. A TuneAway Request parameter and Tune Away Response messages in a DefaultConnected State Protocol provides a mechanism to reliably enable/disabletune-away or provide time correction for any Sector in the Active Set.

FIG. 3 illustrates example schedule timing considerations 300. At 310,some example schedule considerations are provided. For instance at 310,if a tune-away begins or ends in middle of a PHY Frame, a general ruleis to tune away for an entire Frame. Referring briefly back to FIG. 2, aSuper frame begins at 210 and basically starts with a Super framepreamble data packet followed by a series of PHY frames (e.g., 1 Superframe=1 preamble followed by 12 PHY frames). Super frame boundaryconsiderations can include if a tune-away period causes the accessterminal to miss a system information block, the access terminal shallmaintain tune-away for the validity period of the system informationblock which can be set for different times if desired. In oneembodiment, the validity period can be set for two super frames althoughother settings can be employed.

FIGS. 4-8, illustrate tune-away processes and protocols for wirelesssignal processing. While, for purposes of simplicity of explanation, themethodologies are shown and described as a series or number of acts, itis to be understood and appreciated that the processes described hereinare not limited by the order of acts, as some acts may occur indifferent orders and/or concurrently with other acts from that shown anddescribed herein. For example, those skilled in the art will understandand appreciate that a methodology could alternatively be represented asa series of interrelated states or events, such as in a state diagram.Moreover, not all illustrated acts may be required to implement amethodology in accordance with the subject methodologies disclosedherein.

FIG. 4 illustrates one or more inter-frequency protocol considerations400 for automated tune-away procedures and handoff between frequenciesor technologies. The considerations 400 can include one or more messageparameters 410. Such parameters can include message data, sector data,local data, registration data, channel data, pilot strength data, and soforth.

Proceeding to 420, an active set management protocol includes a pilotreport message. This message can be employed to operate channels and addpilots from other frequencies such as via the channel fields in theabove table. At 430, active set assignments can be provided. In somecase, same frequency pilots can be specified in the active set whereasother cases differing pilot frequencies can be specified for the activeset.

FIG. 5 illustrates a connected state protocol 500 for a tune-awaycomponent. The connected state protocol 500 includes a Tune Awayattribute 510 that provides a tune-away schedule. A Tune Away Controlmessage 520 enables or disables tune-away mechanisms, provides timecorrection to a tune-away schedule, and/or can be employed forAsynchronous Sectors.

The tune away attribute can include parameters from the following table:Field Length (bits) Default Length 8 N/A AttributeID 8 N/AStartSuperframeNumber 34 0 StartSuperframeOffset 16 0 TuneAwayDuration22 0 TuneAwayPeriod 24 0where:Length Length of the complex attribute in octets. The sender shall setthis field to the length of the complex attribute excluding the Lengthfield.AttributeID The sender shall set this field to 0×01 .StartSuperframeNumber To compute the tune-away cycles, it shall beassumed that the first tune-away occurred in this super frame.StartSuperframeOffset This field is a measure of time in units of 1micro seconds. To compute the tuneaway cycles, it shall be assumed thatthe first tune-away begins StartSuperframeOffset time after thebeginning of super frame number StartSuperframeNumber.TuneAwayDuration This field determines the duration of the tune away inunits of 1 micro seconds.TuneAwayPeriod This field determines the time between the start ofsuccessive tune-aways in units of 1 microseconds.

The tune away control message 520 can include the following information:Field Length (bits) MessageID 8 TuneAwayEnabled 1 NumPilots 2 NumPilotsinstances of the following field ActiveSetIndex 2 SectorTimeOffset 24where:MessageID This field can be set to 0×04.TuneAwayEnabled This field shall be set to ‘1’ if the terminal will tuneaway at periodic intervals. This field shall be set to ‘0’ if theterminal will not tune away.NumPilots This field shall be set to the number of pilots included inthe message.ActiveSetIndex This field shall be used to identify Acitve Set members,as indexed in the ActiveSetAssignment message of the Active SetManagement Protocol.SectorTimeOffset This field shall be set to the time, in units of 1microseconds, that the terminal adds to the StartSuperframeOffsetattribute when this Active Set member is the serving sector.

FIG. 6 illustrates one or more inter radio access technologyconsiderations 600 for connected mode. At 610, an access terminal makesa handoff decision between one technology and a subsequent one. AHandoff Policy is generally implemented at the access terminal, whereasthe access node may assist in the Handoff process. This can includeproviding other RAT Neighbor Lists (e.g., Level 1/Level 2 systems) andfacilitating tune-away detection processes. At 620, the access terminaldetects a trigger condition such as detecting that signal quality on acurrent channel is below a pre-determined threshold. To start measuringthe other technology a command can be sent to measure a Current ActiveSet Pilot Strength which can include other triggers as well. To handoffto the other technology, the Current Active Set Pilot Strength isdetermined, another RAT Pilot Strength is determined, and any othertrigger employed to enable the handoff. At 630, one or more other RATNeighbor Lists may be employed. This can include processing an OverheadMessage Protocol, a Sector Parameters Message, or other RAT neighborlists as described above. At 640, a tune-away procedure can beautomatically initiated to measure other Frequency Pilots which issimilar in nature to the Inter-Frequency Handoff procedures describedabove.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example protocol 700 for inter-radioaccess technology determinations. Similar to inter-frequency protocolsand parameters described above. The protocol 700 is includes variousparameters for determining alternative communications channels inaccordance with a tune away procedure. As illustrated, the protocol 700can include a plurality of parameters such as message parameters,country code parameters, sector parameters, subnet mask parameters,latitude parameters, longitude parameters, registration parameters, timeand year parameters, and synchronous or asynchronous timing parameters.Other parameters include channel parameters, pilot parameters, powerparameters, and technology parameters such as a technology type andtechnology neighbor list specifications.

FIG. 8 illustrates a hybrid mode protocol 800 for paging systems thatemploy automated tune-away processes. In this embodiment, pages arereceived for other radio access technologies (RAT). This can includeconcurrent registration one frequency versus some other technology.Systems may be synchronous or asynchronous to a given system.

The hybrid protocol 800 enables tune away to listen for Pages that mayhave been sent to a user or system. This includes employment of the TuneAway mechanisms described above.

This may also include Cross Registration for Paging systems in order tocommunicate technology and protocol information. Also, supportmechanisms can be provided to send/receive other system BLOBs (binarylarge objects). This can be useful for Registration or Paging messagingaspects. Other features include a New Session Layer Protocol, an InterRAT Protocol, an InterRATBlob message, and/or an access terminal or anaccess node used to send other RAT messages. The access network oraccess terminal sends the following blob message 820 when it has anotherRAT message to send. Field Length (bits) MessageID 8 TechnologyType 8TechnologyBlobLength 8 TechnologyBlobValue 8× TechnologyLengthwhere:MessageID This field can be set to 0×00.TechnologyType This field shall be set to the type of technology, andcan be interpreted as follows:TechnologyBlobLength This field shall be set to the length, in bytes, ofthe BLOB information for the other technologyTechnologyBlobValue This field shall be set to the BLOB information forthe other technology.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example system 900 for employing wireless signalprocessing components. The system 900 illustrates some of the variousexample components that may employ the tune-away components describedabove. These can include a personal computer 910, a modem 920 thatcollectively communicate over an antenna 930. Communications may proceedthrough a base station 940 that communicates over private or publicnetworks to one or more user sites 950 (or devices). Also, one or morehost computers 960 may be employed to facilitate communications with theother respective components in the system 900. The system 900 can employvarious standards and protocols to facilitate communications.

FIG. 10 illustrates a system 1000 that can be utilized in connectionwith a tune-away. System 1000 comprises a receiver 1002 that receives asignal from, for instance, one or more receive antennas, and performstypical actions thereon (e.g., filters, amplifies, downconverts, . . . )the received signal and digitizes the conditioned signal to obtainsamples. A demodulator 1004 can demodulate and provide received pilotsymbols to a processor 1006 for channel estimation.

Processor 1006 can be a processor dedicated to analyzing informationreceived by receiver component 1002 and/or generating information fortransmission by a transmitter 1014. Processor 1006 can be a processorthat controls one or more portions of system 1000, and/or a processorthat analyzes information received by receiver 1002, generatesinformation for transmission by a transmitter 1014, and controls one ormore portions of system 1000. System 1000 can include an optimizationcomponent 1008 that can optimize allocation of resources during atune-away. Optimization component 1008 may be incorporated into theprocessor 1006. It is to be appreciated that optimization component 1008can include optimization code that performs utility based analysis inconnection with assigning user devices to beams. The optimization codecan utilize artificial intelligence based methods in connection withperforming inference and/or probabilistic determinations and/orstatistical-based determination in connection with optimizing userdevice beam assignments.

System (user device) 1000 can additionally comprise memory 1010 that isoperatively coupled to processor 1006 and that stores information suchas assignment information, scheduling information, and the like, whereinsuch information can be employed with allocating resources during atune-away procedure. Memory 1010 can additionally store protocolsassociated with generating lookup tables, etc., such that system 1000can employ stored protocols and/or algorithms to increase systemcapacity. It will be appreciated that the data store (e.g., memories)components described herein can be either volatile memory or nonvolatilememory, or can include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. By way ofillustration, and not limitation, nonvolatile memory can include readonly memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), electrically programmableROM (EPROM), electrically erasable ROM (EEPROM), or flash memory.Volatile memory can include random access memory (RAM), which acts asexternal cache memory. By way of illustration and not limitation, RAM isavailable in many forms such as synchronous RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM(DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM),enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchlink DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct Rambus RAM(DRRAM). The memory 1010 of the subject systems and methods is intendedto comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitabletypes of memory. The processor 1006 is connected to a symbol modulator1012 and transmitter 1014 that transmits the modulated signal.

FIG. 11 illustrates a system that may be utilized in connection withperforming a tune-away and/or allocating resources during a tune-away.System 1100 comprises a base station 1102 with a receiver 1110 thatreceives signal(s) from one or more user devices 1104 via one or morereceive antennas 1106, and transmits to the one or more user devices1104 through a plurality of transmit antennas 1108. In one example,receive antennas 1106 and transmit antennas 1108 can be implementedusing a single set of antennas. Receiver 1110 can receive informationfrom receive antennas 1106 and is operatively associated with ademodulator 1112 that demodulates received information. Receiver 1110can be, for example, a Rake receiver (e.g., a technique thatindividually processes multi-path signal components using a plurality ofbaseband correlators, . . . ), an MMSE-based receiver, or some othersuitable receiver for separating out user devices assigned thereto, aswill be appreciated by one skilled in the art. For instance, multiplereceivers can be employed (e.g., one per receive antenna), and suchreceivers can communicate with each other to provide improved estimatesof user data. Demodulated symbols are analyzed by a processor 1114 thatis similar to the processor described above with regard to FIG. 10, andis coupled to a memory 1116 that stores information related to userdevice assignments, lookup tables related thereto and the like. Receiveroutput for each antenna can be jointly processed by receiver 1110 and/orprocessor 1114. A modulator 1118 can multiplex the signal fortransmission by a transmitter 1120 through transmit antennas 1108 touser devices 1104.

As shown in FIG. 12, a radio access point can comprise a main unit (MU)1250 and a radio unit (RU) 1275. MU 1250 includes the digital basebandcomponents of an access point. For example, MU 1250 can include abaseband component 1205 and a digital intermediate frequency (IF)processing unit 1210. Digital IF processing unit 1210 digitallyprocesses radio channel data at an intermediate frequency by performingsuch functions as filtering, channelizing, modulation, and so forth. RU1275 includes the analog radio parts of the access point. As usedherein, a radio unit is the analog radio parts of an access point orother type of transceiver station with direct or indirect connection toa mobile switching center or corresponding device. A radio unittypically serves a particular sector in a communication system. Forexample, RU 1275 can include one or more receivers 1230 connected to onemore antennas 1235 a-t for receiving radio communications from mobilesubscriber units. In an aspect, one or more power amplifiers 1282 a-tare coupled to one or more antennas 1235 a-t. Connected to receiver 1230is an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter 1225. A/D converter 1225converts the analog radio communications received by receiver 1230 intodigital input for transmission to baseband component 1205 via digital IFprocessing unit 1210. RU 1275 can also include one or more transmitter1220 connected to either the same or different antenna 1235 fortransmitting radio communications to access terminals. Connected totransmitter 1220 is a digital-to-analog (D/A) converter 1215. D/Aconverter 115 converts the digital communications received from basebandcomponent 1205 via digital IF processing unit 1210 into analog outputfor transmission to the mobile subscriber units. In some embodiments, amultiplexer 1284 for multiplexing of multiple-channel signals andmultiplexing of a variety of signals including a voice signal and a datasignal. A central processor 180 is coupled to main unit 1250 and RadioUnit for controlling various processing which includes the processing ofvoice or data signal.

It is to be understood that the embodiments described herein may beimplemented by hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, orany combination thereof. For a hardware implementation, the processingunits within an access point or an access terminal may be implementedwithin one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs),digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices(DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gatearrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, micro-controllers,microprocessors, other electronic units designed to perform thefunctions described herein, or a combination thereof.

When the systems and/or methods are implemented in software, firmware,middleware or microcode, program code or code segments, they may bestored in a machine-readable medium, such as a storage component. A codesegment may represent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program,a routine, a subroutine, a module, a software package, a class, or anycombination of instructions, data structures, or program statements. Acode segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardwarecircuit by passing and/or receiving information, data, arguments,parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments, parameters,data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted using any suitablemeans including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, networktransmission, etc.

For a software implementation, the techniques described herein may beimplemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) thatperform the functions described herein. The software codes may be storedin memory units and executed by processors. The memory unit may beimplemented within the processor or external to the processor, in whichcase it can be communicatively coupled to the processor through variousmeans as is known in the art.

What has been described above includes exemplary embodiments. It is, ofcourse, not possible to describe every conceivable combination ofcomponents or methodologies for purposes of describing the embodiments,but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many furthercombinations and permutations are possible. Accordingly, theseembodiments are intended to embrace all such alterations, modificationsand variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appendedclaims. Furthermore, to the extent that the term “includes” is used ineither the detailed description or the claims, such term is intended tobe inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as“comprising” is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in aclaim.

1. A method to process wireless signal components for a mobile wirelessaccess broadband service, comprising: defining a protocol that controlswhether to invoke a tune away component to determine an alternativewireless communications path; defining one or more tune away parametersfor the protocol; and selecting the alternative wireless communicationspath based in part on the tune away component and at least one of thetune away parameters.
 2. The method of claim 1, the protocol is employedwith at least one of an inter-frequency protocol, an inter-radio accesstechnology protocol, and a hybrid communications protocol.
 3. The methodof claim 1, further comprising providing a parameter for initiating asignal strength measurement.
 4. The method of claim 1, the protocolincludes at least one of a tune away attribute and a tune away controlmessage.
 5. The method of claim 4, the protocol includes provisions forone or more sets of parameters for tune away.
 6. The method of claim 4,the protocol includes messaging for independently controlling at leastone tune away schedule.
 7. The method of claim 6, further comprising atune-away control allowing for time adjustment per the tune-awayschedule.
 8. The method of claim 7, the tune-away control allowingtiming control per an active set member.
 9. The method of claim 4, thetune away attribute further comprising at least one of a length field,an attribute ID, a start super frame number, a start super frame offset,a time away duration, and a time away period.
 10. The method of claim 4,the tune away control message further comprising at least one of amessage ID, a tune away enabled field, a number of pilots field, anactive set index field, and a sector time offset field.
 11. The methodof claim 1, the tune away parameters further comprising one or more ofthe following parameters, a message ID a country code, a sector ID, asubnet mask, a sector signature, a latitude parameter, a longitudeparameter, a registration radius, time information, date information,offset information, registration information, parameters forsynchronizing systems, channel data, pilot neighbor data, a carrier ID,a sector color field, a transmit power field, a number of othertechnologies field, a technology occurrences field, a technology type, atechnology neighbor list length, or a technology neighbor list.
 12. Amethod for detecting pages in a mobile broadband wireless access system,comprising: enabling a tune-away protocol to determine if a page hasbeen received in a communications system, the tune-away protocolspecifies timing differences between components in the communicationssystem; and sampling for the page in accordance scheduled intervalsspecified with the tune-away protocol.
 13. The method of claim 12,further comprising providing a cross registration component with thetune-away protocol.
 14. The method of claim 12, further comprisingsending a blob (binary large object) message from an access terminal oran access node to facilitate determining the page.
 15. The method ofclaim 14, the blob further comprising at least one of a message ID fieldand a technology type field.
 16. The method of claim 14, the blobfurther comprising at least one of a blob length field and a blob valuefield.
 17. The method of claim 14, further comprising allowing othertechnology messaging over a wireless network via the blob message. 18.The method of claim 17, the other technology messaging including atleast one of a paging component, a neighbor list, a registrationcomponent, and a connection establishment.
 19. The method of claim 14,further comprising updating a timing schedule with a parameter thataccounts for timing differences between at least two different timingcomponents.
 20. The method of claim 19, further comprising determining apage based in part on the timing schedule.
 21. A wireless communicationssystem, comprising: means for transmitting a protocol specifying afrequency measurement for a channel; means for processing threshold datafrom the frequency measurement; and means for communicating to analternative communications channel based in part on the frequencymeasurement.
 22. The system of claim 21, further comprising means forprocessing one or more parameters including a channel parameter, amessage parameter, a location parameter, a time parameter, a dateparameter, neighbor parameter, a power parameter, and a technology typeparameter.
 23. The system of claim 21, further comprising means fordetermining at least one page according to a second protocol.
 24. Thesystem of claim 21, further comprising means for setting inter-frequencyprotocol data or an inter-RAT (Radio Access Technology) protocol data.25. A computer readable medium having a data structure stored thereonfor communicating with a wireless broadband communications system,comprising: at least one tune-away attribute to determine an alternativecommunications path; at least one tune-away control message to enable atune-away component; and at least one message field to specify analternative communications path.
 26. The computer readable medium ofclaim 25, the tune away attribute further comprising at least one of alength field, an attribute ID, a start super frame number, a start superframe offset, a time away duration, and a time away period.
 27. Thecomputer readable medium of claim 25, the tune away control messagefurther comprising at least one of a message ID, a tune away enabledfield, a number of pilots field, an active set index field, and a sectortime offset field.
 28. The computer readable medium of claim 25, furthercomprising one or more of the following fields a message ID, a countrycode, a sector ID, a subnet mask, a sector signature, a latitudeparameter, a longitude parameter, a registration radius, dateinformation, offset information, registration information, parametersfor synchronizing systems, channel data, pilot neighbor data, a carrierID, a sector color field, a transmit power field, a number of othertechnologies field, a technology occurrences field, a technology typefield, a technology neighbor list length field, or a technology neighborlist field.
 29. The computer readable medium of claim 25, the tune awaycomponent includes a tune away schedule and a tune away control element.30. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising: a memory thatincludes one or more protocol parameters for a tune-away with respect toan access terminal; and a processor that determines timing differencesbetween the access terminal and an access network associated therewith,the processor determines a timing correction parameter in view of thetiming differences and the one or more protocol parameters.
 31. Anapparatus for allocating base station resources during a tune-away,comprising: means for determining a tune away protocol schedule; meansfor adjusting at least one protocol parameter in view of the protocolschedule; and means for performing a handoff to an alternativecommunications channel based in part on the protocol parameter and theprotocol schedule.